Looking West toward the Upper Tram Terminus

Sat, 10/21/2017 - 14:02

Library of Congress reference: LC-USZ62-118815

Date picture taken
1906

Comments

Belated thanks to Herostratus for uploading this high-resolution image showing many buildings and another of those old hexagonal water tanks. It’s to the right of the centre of the photo with the Peak Tram track immediately above it.

Looking at the 1912 (https://gwulo.com/media/13074) and 1924 (https://gwulo.com/media/13017) Peak maps, it could be the “No.4 Tank” on RBL 133 that is shown on both.

As the resolution is so good I’ve linked the “places” that can be seen in the distance, but unfortunately it doesn’t help with the date the photo was taken. Best I can say is that it was taken in or after 1903 (both Chair Coolie Quarters buildings are present; Quarndon complete) and before 1911 (Findlay Road construction was started in 1911, but isn’t seen).

It looks like an octagonal tank to me. Which would match the two I know at HKU and Barker Road.

Ian

Octagonal it is. Thanks for the correction.

If it was not the "No.4 Tank", I wonder if it was the one referred to here;

“The iron water tank, of 10,000 gallons capacity, which was removed from the Peak on the construction of the service reservoir there in 1897, was erected above Plantation Road” (Para.36(xxiii) of 1899 PWD Report at GG 168/1900, dd 14 Apr 1900).

This old photo was taken from a seldom used viewpoint and consequently gives a seldom seen view of early houses on the north slopes of Mount Gough. I believe it was taken from close to the east end of Pollock's Path.

Here's the view from there in 2015 for comparison.

View west from Pollock's Path
View west from Pollock's Path, by gw

The ridge lines of Mount Gough (left), High West (center) and Victoria Peak (right) in both photos show strong similarities so I'm fairly confident that the original photographer wasn't far from here. 

The three homes nearest the camera in the old photo are;

Upper - The Belvedere.

Lower Left - Fung Shui.

Lower Right - Abergeldie.

All three are on Plantation Road.